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Daily industrial news and top headlines for plant and maintenance managers

Hytrol (Jonesboro, AR) unveiled its E24™ timing belt transfer, a conveyor accessory that features E24-powered timing belt strands and a pneumatic lift. The timing belt transfer has a modular design, which helps allow for simple system configurations. Its neoprene timing belts are coated with urethane to ensure positive grips when transferring the product, and the drive sheaves come standard with ABEC-1 bearings.

AutomationDirect (Cumming, GA) has added a new line of Bryant wiring devices, including locking and straight blade plugs, connectors, and receptacles—available in 15, 20, and 30 amp models. The locking plugs and connectors are constructed with impact- and chemical-resistant nylon, and accept 14 to 8 gauge solid or stranded conductor wires.

The WHISPERBLAST from Lechler (St. Charles, IL) is a line of air nozzles that are designed to handle most industrial usage for compressed air, such as drying off parts, blowing dirt or dust off parts, or blowing off rejected items from a conveyor. The standard flat version can be installed with others on a header to create an air curtain, while the standard round version can be used for hand-held applications.

General Mfg., Inc (Bluffton, IN) announces the launch of its new Stubby II Cordless LED industrial grade work light, which has eight 1/2-watt side LEDs and comes with a lensed 1-watt LED on the end. The LEDs are rated to 50,000 hours and produce 5000K color light. The 7.

ASML is the world’s leading provider of lithography systems for the semiconductor industry, manufacturing complex machines that are critical to the production of integrated circuits or microchips. The company spends an average of €460 million annually on research and development and has more than 3,000 engineers in R&D.

Tesla is forging ahead with their mass-market electric sedan, the Model S, priced at about $50,000 after rebates. The car, which will be released to the market in 2012, is designed to be attractive enough that consumers will not care what's under the hood, or that it runs on just a hum. But with cheaper alternatives from the likes of Chevrolet and Nissan, the higher sticker price could sway consumers away from the Tesla.

If you put a man in a big machine, like this excavator, chances are at some point he'll try to do some crazy stunt with it. The people at Liebherr are no different. To prove the strength of their hydraulic system, they put this excavator to the ultimate test: a vertical climb. It's hard to explain here, so direct yourself toward the videos to see for yourself.

Our only salvation is to out-innovate the rest of the world.
In March, I spoke at the World's Best Technology (WBT) conference in Arlington, TX, addressing a large venue of venture capitalists and other parties interested in my company’s new wastewater treatment system, the Water Phoenix.

I thought I knew what a deadline was in college, but when I was miraculously able to translate my English literature degree into a full-time writing job, I learned what this really meant. When someone is paying you to do something, you get it done—plain and simple. What this occasionally means for me are long nights, early mornings, and a rare summer Saturday spent getting laptop burns on my legs instead of sunburns.

EXAIR (Cincinnati, OH) introduces the new Summing Remote Display for the Digital Flowmeter, making it easy to monitor compressed air consumption from a convenient location. With the push of a button, the display cycles to show the current air consumption, usage for the previous 24 hours, and total cumulative usage.

BERLIN (AP) — Hydrogen, one of Earth's most abundant elements, once was seen as green energy's answer to the petroleum-driven car: easy to produce, available everywhere and nonpolluting when burned.
Hydrogen energy was defeated by a mountain of obstacles — the fear of explosion by the highly flammable gas, the difficulty of carrying the fuel in large, heavy tanks in the vehicle, and the lack of a refueling network.

SHANGHAI (AP) — Chinese automaker Zhejiang Geely Holding Co. may locate the China headquarters and factory for Volvo Cars in Shanghai once its takeover of the Swedish company is finalized, an official said Monday.
The plan, reported in the state-controlled newspaper Economic Observer, calls for Volvo to set up its headquarters in the Shanghai suburb of Jiading, home to Volkswagen AG's joint venture with local carmaker Shanghai Automotive Industrial Corp.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The government says Toyota has agreed to pay a record $16.4 million fine for failing to properly notify federal authorities about a dangerous pedal defect.
The fine is the largest-ever penalty paid by an automaker to the U.S. government. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says that by failing to report safety problems, Toyota put consumers at risk.

ALBURTIS, Pa. (AP) — Authorities in eastern Pennsylvania say one of the two people injured in a fire at a pipe manufacturing plant has died.
Lehigh County Coroner Scott Grim says 37-year-old Bridgette Geist of Walnutport died at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest. An autopsy Friday concluded that her death was accidental.

TWINSBURG, Ohio (AP) — The clerk at the candy shop does not want to cry. She is determinedly cheerful, a professional smiler, dressed head to toe in bright turquoise.
But standing next to a display of plastic-wrapped candles and teddy bears, her face crumples at the most basic of questions: Are you doing OK?
"I'm sorry," she says, wiping her eyes with a shirt sleeve, her voice a shaky whisper.

GUANGZHOU, China (AP) — Two factories that make Microsoft Corp. products in southern China violated overtime regulations and failed to properly register the use of workers aged 16 to 18, officials said Monday.
The problems at the plants in the city of Dongguan were initially raised last week by the National Labor Committee, a New York-based nonprofit that monitors the treatment of foreign workers by U.

Notifier by Honeywell (Northford, CT) has developed two new lines of gas and flame detection products designed to work with fire alarm and life safety systems in industrial facilities: Sensepoint XCD and FD Series lines. The Sensepoint XCD detector can be used to monitor industrial sites for a wide range of toxic and flammable gasses, and it provides diagnostic, alarm, and gas concentration values from multiple sensors.

GM is predicting a revolution in the way urbanites get from one place to another, and it doesn't involve two legs or four wheels. The EN-V concept car proposes to send its drivers about on two wheels, like a Segway, using electric batteries and a bit of technological know-how. While the EN-V doesn't have much to show for range or speed, it could make up for it in convenience and price.

Frommelt Safety Products (Milwaukee, WI) has unveiled the new Kwik-Snap interlocking safety curtains, designed to protect industrial and manufacturing employees from weld flash and flying debris. The curtains feature snap fasteners along the sides, and mounting hooks for ease of installation.